Bulldogs dominate en route to 42-0 victory over Wareham

By Matt MulliganCorrespondent

Saturday

Sep 8, 2018 at 4:17 PMSep 8, 2018 at 8:04 PM

MATTAPOISETT - Experience seemed to be the deciding factor in Old Rochester's 42-0 victory over Wareham in the 2018 edition of the Cranberry Bowl. The contrasting comments from each coach reflects the contrasting levels of each team's level of experience.

"We started a kid from Brazil and we had another kid from Norway," Vikings head coach Fran Cass said. "The QB (Isaac Pinheiro) from Brazil - he had never taken a snap before at quarterback. We had I think 19 eligible players that are (grade) ten-to-twelve; we played four freshman today. And of those 18-19 guys that we had possible, I would say only three of them have been on the field taking snaps before. And it's tough."

ORR's head coach Justin Kogler benefited from a level of efficiency and execution that comes from experience.

"I just think we have a lot of experienced guys, and we have a lot of guys that have been playing football since they were like seven-eight years old," Kogler said. "They have a ton of experience, they know how to play football. It's more of that than anything else."

Old Rochester wasted no time capitalizing on the gap in experience between the two teams, as senior running back Will Garcia raced around the left sideline for a 51-yard touchdown on the Bulldogs second offensive play. Garcia proved nearly unstoppable on the night, running for more than 150 yards and four touchdowns.

"He's a great back," Kogler said. "He averaged almost 11 yards a carry last year, he had 21 touchdowns, 1,400 yards - I mean he's good. And we have some other guys who can run the ball, and our QB's throwing the ball better now, and we got some receivers, but Will's Will. We knew he's a good player."

An interception by the Bulldogs Anthony Childs halted Wareham's opening drive and set up ORR at the Vikings twenty-yard line. Two runs later from Garcia and the Bulldogs found the end zone again. Junior Jonathan Borsari's extra point made it 14-0 in just over three minutes of play.

The Vikings showed resilience after a subsequent punt, when senior DB Erik Zine nabbed an interception in the corner of the endzone to end ORR's following drive. The Bulldogs showed their own stubborn streak on their next drive however, scoring on a similar throw on their third offensive play. QB Coyle McIntyre rolled right and found senior Robbie Pedro for the score. Jonathan Borsari added the PAT to swell ORR's led to 21-0 with just 25.9 left in the first quarter.

Another Garcia score midway through the second quarter widened the gap further before an equipment malfunction abruptly brought both teams together as search parties. Upon the dislodging of a player's hearing aid, play was halted for more than 10 minutes as players, coaches, volunteers, and referees scanned the field between the thirty and thirty-five yard line. The decision was eventually made by the officials to reverse fields for the remainder of the half as to avoid potential damaging of the dislodged earpiece. During another thorough halftime search, the item was found by Wareham police Lt. John Gerard, to the loud cheers of the crowd.

The unusual moment had an impact on both coaches, not just for unpredictability, but for civility as well.

"I just think that it's something that nobody's ever seen before," Cass said. "And the good thing is too that these guys were nice enough to stop the game and help - everybody helped. That was super nice. Everybody came out and helped, that was great."

"It was great; that was a moment like beyond the game," Kogler concurred. "You're battling, you're playing, but the kid lost (an expensive) hearing aid, everyone's like, 'Oh man. we've got to find it, we can't just trample on it.' That was a good thing, that was cool. I'll never forget that."

Old Rochester scored again with two and a half minutes before intermission upon a two-yard plunge from Garca to balloon their lead to 35 to nothing.

The second half featured a more grinding offensive performance from both squads. The Bulldogs senior Robbie Pedro earned the final points of the game with an 18-yard run up the middle a little over a minute into the final stanza.

"O-R's a very good football team, I think they'll win the Large, they should," Cass said. "I hope they do - good guys over there, good friends and they're very well-coached. This isn't the first game we wanted to have, but with this football team it's just trial by fire. There's experiences you can't get until it's real. We're just a long way off, but we'll try to make it through. We've got a freshman program. We try to get a freshman team so we can get these numbers back up. So I'm in it for the long haul, I knew that coming in, it's a long season."

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